Senator Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), seen here in a cameo in The Dark Knight, was "pressured" by National District Attorneys' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association to change the language of the privacy bill (Source: Warner Bros.)

Bill originally added protection for e-mail

Talk about a bait and switch. CNET is reporting that Senator Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has revised legislation he proposed previously that originally claimed to protect e-mail privacy of American citizens. That proposal has been rewritten, and now allows for law enforcement officials to read your e-mails without a warrant.

The bill is scheduled for a vote next week and was reworked after the National District Attorneys' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association made it clear that they were concerned about increasing difficulty gaining access to e-mails for criminal investigations. The rewritten bill would give access to e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter messages to 22 different government agencies without the need for a search warrant.

The rewritten bill would also allow the FBI and Homeland Security additional authority in certain circumstances to access accounts on the internet without notifying the owner or needing approval by a judge.

The original legislation proposed would've required police to obtain a search warrant and have probable cause before they were allowed to read the contents of e-mail or other digital communications.

Senator Leahy previously said of his legislation, "[The bill] provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

And, lest you mistake me for a foolish partisan, the two parties work for the same people: the very wealthy. The same multinational businessmen who have little concern over the long-term welfare of this nation because their investments and interests are globalized.

There is little substantive difference between the GOP and the Democratic party today. Small differences (such as social wedge issues) are amplified by the media, other surrogates, and politicians themselves in order to distract the public from the biggest threat to our way of life: bipartisanship.

There is a lot more of that than there is gridlock, it's just that we've been flimflammed into thinking more cooperation between the corporatist party with two sides to its coin is going to bring us good outcomes.

But, please continue to watch the theatrical production and imagine that we have two parties who truly oppose each other, and that there is really a "left" anywhere near Washington.

That is what they campaigned on doesnt mean they intended to fulfill it. Keep believing in the theater production.

You had Kerry and Bush running for president from the same campus and the same fraternity (skull and bones), please tell me the odds of that one. ITS THEATER pure and simple. The Best actors are not in Hollywood.

I'll just disprove one of your absurd assertions, because it's really not worth the effort to do more:

quote: Obama obviously supports single payer health care.

Obama made a secret deal with the industry players right after taking office. That deal killed not only single-payer (it wasn't even to be negotiated in public in a "let's pretend we're for it at all" manner) — it killed the public option.

The charade of the Dems, including Obama, being for the public option was exposed clearly. See Glenn Greenwald's article The Democrats' Scam Becomes More Transparent. The Democrats whipped against the public option. They refused to use reconciliation. The press exposed the secret Obama deal, even though he lied all along — telling the public he wanted the public option. Pelosi lied about it. The White House called Howard Dean a lunatic for saying the bill needed to be refused until it had a public option, and got fake progressives like Markos to do the same.

The Republicans' falsity was also exposed with the way they allowed the bill to be voted on in the morning before Christmas Eve when they thought the public wouldn't notice. Everything they did was done simply to make it easier for the industry, who also gives them bribe money, to get rid of the public option. They worked for the Democrats' deal by giving them a political excuse to kill it.

quote: This past election couldn't have been more polarized.

Change the word polarized to theatrical and you'll have something. But, yes, the stupid public plays along because they're so propagandized and naive.